The Latest on Missouri execution: Top court gets new appeal

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The latest on the scheduled execution of Missouri inmate Roderick Nunley, who was convicted of killing a 15-year-old girl in Kansas City in 1989 (all times local):

12 p.m.

The attorney for convicted killer Roderick Nunley has filed a new appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in an effort to halt his execution.

Nunley is scheduled to die Tuesday evening for killing 15-year-old Ann Harrison in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1989. The girl was abducted while waiting for a school bus, then raped and stabbed to death.

Defense attorney Jennifer Herndon initially appealed last week, arguing that the death penalty amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. She also has argued that a jury, not a judge, should have sentenced her client.

A new appeal, filed Monday, argues that Nunley's constitutional rights are being violated due to the secrecy concerning Missouri's execution drug. The state refuses to disclose who makes the drug or how it is tested.

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11 a.m.

The attorney for convicted killer Roderick Nunley is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to halt his client's execution because the death penalty amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. But a detective who helped break the case says Nunley should have been put to death long ago.

Nunley is scheduled to die at 6 p.m. Tuesday for raping and killing 15-year-old Ann Harrison in Kansas City in 1989.

In addition to the court appeal, Gov. Jay Nixon is reviewing a clemency request.

Nunley and Michael Taylor were both convicted of first-degree murder in a crime that shook the Kansas City area. Taylor was executed last year.

Retired Kansas City detective Pete Edlund called it "outrageous" that that the execution process has taken a quarter of a century.